At INFODAD, we rank everything we review with plus signs, on a scale from one (+) [disappointing] to four (++++) [definitely worth considering]. We mostly review (+++) or better items. Very rarely, we give an exceptional item a fifth plus. We are independent reviewers and, as parents, want to help families learn which books, music, and computer-related items we and our children love...or hate. INFODAD is a service of TransCentury Communications, Inc., Fort Myers, Florida, infodad@gmail.com.

July 31, 2014

(++++) MAJOR AND MINOR READERS

Huff and Puff and the New Train.
By Tish Rabe. Pictures by Gill Guile. Harper. $16.99.

Diary of a Worm: Nat the Gnat.
By Lori Haskins Houran. Pictures by John Nez. Harper. $16.99.

The I Can Read! series from HarperCollins is distinguished not only by its
five levels of writing for differently advanced young readers but also by its
use of characters that tie into longer, more-complex books outside the series
itself. Kids who learn reading from simple adventures of Pinkalicious or Little
Critter, for example, will have a wealth of other books to choose from when
they move beyond the series itself and are ready to explore reading on their
own. Not all the characters in the I Can
Read! series are necessarily well-known, and some are certainly more
important in modern children’s literature than others – but what makes the
series work so well is the way any and all the characters are used in stories
that intrigue kids at all reading levels and help them move into more-complex
tales as their reading ability grows.

The series starts at the My First level, identified as “ideal for
sharing with emergent readers” – that is, books at this level are intended to
be read with a young child to help introduce him or her to reading that will
eventually be something he or she can do alone. Huff and Puff and the New Train is an example: Huff is an engine
and Puff is a caboose, and together they make trains go. But a new, sleek train
shows up and is much faster than the old-fashioned friends.The trains have a race – and in unsurprising
tortoise-and-hare fashion, the new train is so far ahead that it stops to rest,
which lets Huff and Puff pass by and win. The language is very simple and
presented in very large print: “The two trains raced uphill and down,/ in the
country, in the town.” And the colors and settings are pleasant and enjoyable
for pre-readers and the youngest readers: the book is officially intended for
ages 4-8, but is more likely to attract kids in the 3-6 age range.

Also designed for ages 4-8,
and more reasonably targeted there, Level 1 books offer “simple sentences for
eager new readers” – an example being Diary
of a Worm: Nat the Gnat. The original Diary
of a Worm, which young readers may seek out after they become more adept
with books, is by Doreen Cronin and Harry Bliss; but as usual in this series
for the youngest readers, the Nat the
Gnat entry is an adaptation based on the original book, not a work by
Cronin and Bliss themselves. The approach and characterization remain true,
though, in a story – slightly more complex than those in the My First level – that has Worm allowed
to take care of the class pet, Nat the Gnat, until Worm accidentally leaves the
cage open. Not knowing what to do, Worm has to decide whether or not to tell everyone
what happened. His decision is to catch another gnat – with the help of his
friend Spider – but even then, he feels bad and eventually does tell the class
that he lost Nat. Telling the truth helps everything work out when it is
discovered that Nat is not lost after all – a simple moral, no more overstated
than the tortoise-and-hare one in the Huff and Puff book, with the language
here slightly more complex: “This morning, I brought Nat a nice wet leaf. I
opened his tank to put in the leaf. Then I closed it and went out for recess.”

The writing becomes still
more complex in Level 2 books, which offer “high-interest stories for
developing readers.” These too are for ages 4-8; with the natural
differentiation of reading skills, that age range continues to make sense –
earlier readers will be done with them by about age six, but some kids may not
even start at this level until that age. In any case, there are many, many
characters at this level from whom to choose, some quite well-known and others
less so. Jeff Brown’s Flat Stanley, for example, is at the center of Show-and-Tell, Flat Stanley! – although,
as usual in this reading series, the book is based on Brown’s work but not
created by him. Stanley’s little brother, Arthur, takes Stanley to school for
show-and-tell, where the teacher, Miss Plum, has something of her own to show
the class: an engagement ring. In a series of misadventures, the ring ends up
on the head of another show-and-tell offering, a mouse, and Stanley alone can
get into the ceiling crack where the frightened mouse has gone to hide. The
mistakes and heroics happen quickly and amusingly; kids who already know Flat
Stanley – perhaps through an older sibling – will enjoy this book and look
forward to reading more about the flattened-by-a-blackboard boy.

Speaking of mouse matters, Riff Raff the Mouse Pirate commands a
crew consisting of Cheddar, Munster, Swiss, Colby, Blue and Brie on a treasure
quest complicated by the fact that the map they are using is partially torn. Riff
Raff promises cheese to the first mouse pirate who spots the right street – all
they know is that its name starts with PLU. Several misspellings later, the
correct street is located and the treasure is found – and proves not to be what
the mice expected, although they are quite happy with it nevertheless. Riff
Raff’s story was created specifically for this reading series rather than spun
off from other books – but there is more of Riff Raff within this series for kids to enjoy. There are several Monster
School books by Dave Keane, too, such as The
Spooky Sleepover. These feature entirely nonthreatening monsters with eyes
on stalks, a single eye, 10 eyeballs, and various non-eye-related anatomical
features, such as the ability to change into a bat or werewolf, two heads – that
sort of thing. Keane carefully draws the kid monsters to look as much as
possible like ordinary children – such as Norm, who in The Spooky Sleepover is having his first-ever sleepover, which
happens to be at Monster School. Norm interacts with Gill (who has gills), Gary
(a ghost), Harry (a werewolf who eats two whole pizzas, plus the boxes they
come in), Miss Grunt (the zombie librarian), and other at the school. But Norm
cannot sleep – not because of the monstrousness around him but because he does
not have his usual sleeping environment. So the monsters help Norm out – for
instance, Hilda the witch turns her salamander into a cat to keep Norm company
– and everything ends happily. The gentle lesson here, that everyone worries on
his or her first sleepover, is nicely meshed with the unusual setting.

Some Level 2 books draw on
characters originally created for purposes having little to do with learning to
read – video games and comics, for example. Kids who enjoy the Plants vs. Zombies game and comics featuring
Batman can easily find Level 2 books that they will like, such as Save Your Brains! and Batman Versus the Riddler. The first of
these is essentially an introduction to the silliness of a world where
brain-craving but slow and ridiculous-looking zombies are easy to fight off by
using various helpful, anthropomorphic plants, such as potato mines, two-fisted
Bonk Choy and (for Pirate Zombies) Snapdragons. The second is a typical story
in which a supposedly smart bad guy cannot outwit Batman (helped in this case
by Batgirl) – and the villain ends up foiled by his own miscalculation, leaving
the Bat duo (drawn in contemporary hyper-craggy style) triumphant. These books
are not as carefully designed to advance kids’ reading ability as are many of
the other I Can Read! books, and
therefore get (+++) ratings. And neither of these books will appeal to early
readers who are not already involved in their subject matter. But those who are interested in the video-game or
comic-book background of these books may be encouraged to read more-traditional
books by seeing the characters they know and like in this context. And that is
ultimately what all the I Can Read!
books are after, with whatever characters they contain: getting kids interested
in reading in a systematic way that is progressive through multiple stages of
difficulty.